Last month, Matt Watson @ Detroit Bad Boys had an excellent piece on Cheikh Samb. In fact, I like to think it highlights the function of fan communities and blogs as being able to dig deeper on prospects, stepping outside the boundaries of the franchise practice facility or scheduled media appearances. Nothing beats first hand knowledge, and when a player is outside the USA, that type of appraisal is hard to come by. It’s a big reason why we run BadBoySummerCamp. Because a lot of news and perspective goes unreported.

If you’re interested at all in the seven foot shot blocker we traded Maurice Evans for last year, then Matt’s post is a must read.

As far as his progress as a player is concerned, Cheikh has managed to strive at gaining muscle and furthering his skills. Here, you have to take into account that he has been playing basketball for five years, a very short period of time. Considering his evolution, it is scary to imagine how far will be able to go as a player. During the course of this season, and using the idle time while he was injured, he added 12-15 pounds of muscle to his frame. His physical evolution is hard to miss when you look at the pictures from last year´s [Las Vegas] Summer League (left) and you compare them to the latest available images from one of his last games with Cornella (right).

Keith Langlois, the Pistons’ official scribe posted several insights about Cheikh yesterday,

“He’s like a sponge,” said Cowens, who worked out with Samb last week for the first time. “He’s got a lot of upside. He’s a pretty coordinated kid for a big and he moves well. The biggest thing for him now is conditioning and the strength in the core of his body.”

Samb was listed variously at 195 to 215 pounds a year ago, but since getting his first taste of the NBA he’s become a weight-lifting devotee.

“Last year when I come to Summer League, my first time, I see a lot of players, like, strong,” – and here he holds his hands well apart to display broad shoulders – “and I be like this” – and here he holds up a long, spidery index finger. “Skinny. I see I got to work on legs to get more big and come back to Spain this season. I have a little pain in my foot – I no play. I lift and lift and lift. I weigh now like 12 kilos more – I don’t know in pounds.”

There you have it. Cheikh Samb. No longer an enigma, and a possible Piston contributor.